Sugar in the Valley of Salt
November 18th, 2009
Utah Stories celebrates Utah's history of innovation and ability to sprout wealth in a desert
by Richard Markosian
Utahns have always been innovators, entrepreneurs and business-minded people. From the earliest days when the Salt Lake Valley was first settled by Mormon Pioneers -- former inhabitants, such as Jim Bridger saw a valley of salt inhospitable to any decent crop production. But Brigham Young and the Pioneers quickly proved him wrong and successfully grew crops. But apparently Brigham Young had a sweet tooth because it wasn't enough to just get enough to eat, he wanted sugar -- certainly not for his coffee. Maybe he enjoyed muffins.
Back in the 1850s sugar was a rare treat and molasses was their only substitute sweetener, it was even worse than Splenda. Young and fellow pioneers wanted sugar and they were sick and tired of paying $1.40 per pound for imported sugar from Missouri. In today's dollars that equates to $35.81 per pound or about a $1 per teaspoon.
Young failed in his lifetime to produce sugar, but his dream lived on after his death. Salt Lake Valley and the surrounding Utah counties eventually became a national hub for sugar production due to the industrious Mormons finally getting sugar beet production right. By 1890 they opened a factory in Lehi that would process 1,000 tons of sugar beets per day. Utah & Idaho Sugar became a huge source of jobs and wealth.
Throughout the World Wars sugar prices escalated and many Mormon investors, as well as the Mormon church (who owned at least a 40% stake in U&I) made huge profits. But in the 1960's U&I fell on hard times as sugar prices plummeted. It became impossible for U&I to compete with the likes of C&H. Despite the eventual failure of U&I the Utah economy easily adapted to other sectors. The trend of Utah's economic history is resilience. As factories and industries have come and gone Utahns have innovated.
intensive job of sugar beet farming
This issue of Utah Stories is about five business owners who have found ways of operating their businesses more efficiently using the Internet and technology. Their success isn't limited to the Utah marketplace or the confines of their brick and mortar business. They understand that the new "flat-earth" marketplace has no walls limiting the scale of operations. These business owners have managed to escape the typical scope most small businesses maintain -- and see the bigger picture.
The wealth these business owners have created benefits us all: they provide jobs, increase economic activity through the exchange of local labor and local goods and services, and in so doing provide wealth to hundreds of other businesses and thousands of consumers.
The ideas and innovations that these business owners use, represent our answer to overcoming the current recession.
Left in shambles are the attempts of the federal government to pump taxpayer money into failing corporations lacking innovative ideas. The economic stimulus has siphoned billions of dollars from wealth-generating small business owners, to patch holes in sinking corporations.
in 1891 with $400,000 raised by the
LDS Church. The first factory was built
in Lehi and was operated until 1966.
The bureaucrats responsible for our auto industry bailouts -- in their attempts to preserve the "wealth" of the U.S. auto industry -- fail to understand the concept of wealth. If GM could make a better car than the Japanese for the price, world-wide sales would demonstate their value. But GM failed to innovate or predict market changes. In the end Americans along with the rest of the world are more wealthy as a result of Japanese cars as well as any cheaper product the world market offers.
Wealth creation is a practice performed every day by people who find a better way. The owners we profile in this issue demonstrate that money or capital are never the answer to success. But great ideas implemented by people who are willing to work hard rarely fail in a free market.
Due to the Internet there are more opportunities in business than ever. Intellectual capital, insight and true innovation are the ingredients that made these business owners flourish.
Its is these same attributes that made the Pioneers finally succeed in the sugar industry.
Besides being innovative, sugar beet farmers had big families and no TVs and Nintendos to suck up all the kids time. They could produce beets more efficiently using the labor of their children. Kids planted, thined and picked the beet fields for cheaper than anyone else in the country. Farmers also implemented modern irrigation methods that enabled them to plant thousands of acres and harvest greater yields than other farms.
As modern agricultural took shape machines slowly replaced manual labor. The advantage that Mormons had in using their children's labor was gone and the Utah sugar industry began to die. Sugar cane fields in tropical climates could produce more sugar per acre than Utah sugar beet fields. Did the Utah sugar producers cry to the government for a bailout? No they adapted.
Utah is a leader in the U.S. in innovation. It is this spirit that we have attempted to portray.
I have learned a great deal from profiling these business owners and it's my pleasure to share their insight.
